Well, good morning! Yesterday was a fine day, having seen the project fund. I got to talk live about that on a video interview with Skeeter Green (usually also Zach Glazar, but he couldn’t make it). It’s about an hour long and you can rewatch it here:

Delvers to Grow Worked Example

Today’s post is all about making a worked example character. We’ll make this guy:

We’ll keep it right in the middle of the pack at 125 points.

The character is thus a 125-point swashbuckler. We’ll start with a human, then go back and make the adjustments to turn him into an eldhuð, the totally-not-a-tiefling version of the residents of Norðlond who have a wee bit of the infernal in them.

So…let’s get going.

Step 1: Point level, category, profession

We already know all of these things. So it’s fast: 125 point fast delver template, swashbuckler profession.

The 125-point character is the Journeyman level. So we get this:

Step 2: Disadvantages and Personality

For disadvantages, let’s go with a character whose birth with such . . . unusual features was not expected. Oops. Naughty naughty.

The three disads that are the deep mechanics of the build are less important than the fluff-text as a roleplaying aid! Your family was rich and important, but when your horns and such started to grow in your early teens…well, that was a scandal. And we can’t have that. His behavior afterwards has also been a wee bit too amorous: Those infernal impulses do tell!

For the other, we’ll say that the character grew to hate injustice and such, so we’ll pick a classic “I was bullied and disinherited, so I shall defend the weak!”

Note that the same thing, but dark and violent, is also available as the Dark Knight package. So yeah, you can be Batman.

For a new player…”Disinherited Paladin” is going to be way easier as a roleplaying aid than the five separate disadvantages on the sheet…but those five disads give the mechanical hooks to the GM to adjudicate the game and make opportunities for roleplay available. For the new player…yeah: Disinherited Paladin.

Note: We don’t take any quirks here yet, but we could take up to five. Later on, we consume one quirk (say…”Bad at Math”) in order to trade that point for cash. We could then spend four more, and that is recommended to help round out the character.

Step 3: Professional Packages

Now we need the 25- and 50-point Swashbuckler I and II professional packages.

First we’ll take a point in Throwing as the secondary weapon skill from the Fast Delver basic template.

Then focus on a one-handed sword thanks to the art, but it’s an (edged) rapier. Note that a broadsword has a ST 10 minimum as does a longsword…so if you wanted a “broadsword fencer,” that could probably be worked out with the GM, if they’re feeling generous. Or just say your edged rapier looks mysteriously like a broadsword, since if plate armor can look like a string bikini, my edged rapier can look like a broadsword. Go for an Edged Rapier, though, which has that sweet, sweet swing damage but costs $1,000. If you expect to be a front-line fighter, you want that swing damage eventually (though at ST 11, it’s of limited value even with Weapon Master).

 

This gives us so far:

ST 11, DX 13, IQ 10, HT 12

HP 12 (The other secondaries are currently unmodified, but Basic Speed is 6.25)

Disad Packages: Disinherited; Paladin

Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15], Weapon Master (Rapier)[20], Weapon Bond (Rapier)[1]

Skills: Acrobatics-12 [2], Brawling-13 [1], Carousing-12[1], Climbing-12[1], Jumping-13[1], Fast-Draw (Rapier)-13 [1], Rapier-17 (+1 for Weapon Bond), Stealth-12 [1], Streetwise-9 [1], Throwing-12[1].

Step 4: Totally not a Tiefling

Now we need the 25-point upgrade package…which we’ll use to acquire a racial package.

The character in question is an eldhuð, which are Nordlond’s “totally-not-tieflings.” The upgrade packages are 25 points…and the eldhuð template from “Nordlondr Folk” is only 20. So that’s great. We have five points left over…those go into the slush fund for now.

The Eldhud pick up Appearance (Attractive), Charisma 1, Fire Resistance 5, and 8 points of “gifts.” We’ll take Nimble Tail for 5 points, Flaming Touch for 2 points, and 1 level of Temperature Tolerance. We also pick up Impulsive (12) and Unnatural Features 2 as part of the eldhuð package. Traditionally racial packages don’t count against the disadvantage limit, so we slide right by that.

Step 5: Loadout

Now we need a loadout. We have $1,000 to start, and 5 points in the slush fund from the racial package. We haven’t chosen or allocated any quirks either.

We want to get the Edged Rapier  (3 lbs, $1,000) because it’s awesome, and then spend $233 on the Basic Kit (36.25 lbs), and pick up the Light Armor kit ($225, 19.8 lbs). That’s 59 lbs of gear, so we’ll definitely want to drop the small backpack before we fight! Including the rapier, we’re at $1,458…so we take a single quirk and trade it for cash. That leaves us with the gear and $42 left to our name. It also makes the total point value of the character 124 points.

Step 6: Slush Fund and Tweaking

We have five points still remaining in the slush fund. We bump up Brawling, Climbing, Stealth, Streetwise, and Throwing (DX/A) each by one point.

Also note that we have Basic Speed 6.25 thanks to the boost from the Swashbuckler II package. We take the Secondary disadvantage package, which lets you trade reduced secondary characteristics (-5 points from Basic Speed) for dropping an equivalent number of points disad: we cut Compulsive Carousing loose.

Final Character

ST 11, DX 13, IQ 10, HT 12

HP 12, Will 10, Per 10, FP 12

Basic Speed: 6, Basic Move 6

Disad Packages: Disinherited; Paladin; Secondary.

Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Chivalry), Honesty, Impulsive (12), Lecherousness, Social Stigma (Disowned), Unnatural Features 2.

Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15], Weapon Master (Rapier) [20], Weapon Bond (Rapier) [1], Appearance (Attractive) [4] , Charisma 1 [5], Fire Resistance 5 [15], Nimble Tail [5], Flaming Touch [2], Temperature Tolerance 1 (Heat) [1].

Skills: Acrobatics-12 [2], Brawling-14 [2], Carousing-12 [1], Climbing-12 [2], Fast-Draw (Rapier)-14 [1] (includes +1 from Combat Reflexes),  Jumping-13 [1], Rapier-17 (due to Weapon Bond) [12], Stealth-13 [2], Streetwise-10 [2], Throwing-13 [2].

Gear: Edged rapier ($1,000, 3 lbs), 1 belt pouch ($10, 0.2 lbs) containing personal basics ($5, 1 lb) and one glow vial ($30, 0.5 lbs); one suit of ordinary clothes ($0, 2 lbs); 1 small backpack ($40, 3 lbs) containing a rolled blanket ($20, 4 lbs), 1 week’s worth of rations ($42, 10.5 lbs), a 1-person tent ($50, 5 lbs), two torches ($6, 2 lbs), a one-gallon waterskin ($10, 8.25 lbs when full), 1 pair of heavy leather boots (4.2 lbs, $52); 1 heavy leather helm (3 lbs, $15); 1 heavy leather vest (12.6 lbs, $158).

 

And now we’re done!